Boiler Bistro, John Purdue Room move toward sustainability

The bursts of flavor found in the sandwiches, burgers and
soups at Boiler Bistro in Marriott Hall soon will come courtesy of local,
sustainable ingredients.

As early as next semester, the bistro will begin using herbs,
tomatoes and lettuce grown at the Purdue Student Farm, located on five acres
near McCormick Road and Indiana 26, says Ambarish Lulay. He is a clinical chef
instructor in the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management and he is the
bistro's supervisor.

Lulay says the bistro is making moves to focus on
sustainability because it's a responsible way to run the operation, and because
sustainable practices are valuable lessons for the students who work there.

"First and foremost, we're a teaching facility for HTM
students, and sustainability is a piece that needs to be taught more and more,"
Lulay says. "Given the economic climate and many ongoing corporate
initiatives, students are going to see a focus on sustainability in this
industry, so it's important for them to learn about it now."

Today, Purdue celebrates efforts to use and promote
sustainable food as part of its annual Green Week celebration. For a full list
of remaining Green Week events, go to www.purdue.edu/greenweek.

In addition to looking for ways to include sustainable
ingredients, the bistro is considering using sustainable utensils and
dinnerware. One of Lulay's students is studying the most cost-effective way to
implement such products, he says.

While Boiler Bistro makes moves to become more sustainable,
the John Purdue Room in Marriott Hall has been using local, sustainable
ingredients in its lunch menu items since it opened in its new location in
January, says Mick La Lopa, associate professor of hospitality and tourism
management. He teaches the HTM 291 students who run the restaurant's lunch
operations.

"Everything we do in terms of lunch
service at the John Purdue Room focuses on four values -- we want our food to
be healthy, locally produced, seasonal and sustainable, especially because we
are part of the College of Health and Human Sciences," La Lopa says.

Local, sustainable ingredients used in lunch menu items
include eggs from Sheep Dog Farms, a cage-free facility about 12 miles
northwest of campus; in the past, lunch menu items have used chicken from the
farms. Other sustainable ingredients used are tomatoes, peppers and assorted
vegetables grown at local farms or at the student farm.

Beef, pork and lamb used in lunch menu dishes comes from Smith
Hall's Boilermaker Butcher Block, a facility that sells meat raised at Purdue's
animal sciences farm, which is located near Montmorenci.

Additionally, HTM recently received a grant from Arni's
restaurants, a local chain, to start an herb garden. The herbs grown will be
used in dishes on the John Purdue Room's lunch menu and in the food at Boiler
Bistro.

In addition to using sustainable ingredients, the John Purdue
Room sends its food waste to West Lafayette's wastewater treatment plant, where
the city's digesters convert it into energy to power the plant.

Nelly Farmer, sous chef at the John Purdue Room and a chef
instructor, says the restaurant's focus on sustainability makes sense given the
environmentalist bent of the campus and city.

"Any time you're running a culinary operation, it make
sense to focus on local, sustainable food, because local food that's in season
is cheaper and tastes phenomenal," Farmer says. "When it comes to
composting our food waste, we knew that West Lafayette was the second city in
the country to get a digester, so we wanted to make sure to use it in any way
we could."

Eventually, the goal is to create the restaurant's entire
lunch menu based around the local, sustainable ingredients available during
each season.

Lulay says the sustainability efforts of Boiler Bistro and the
John Purdue Room bode well for Purdue as well as for the surrounding community.

"Sustainability doesn't just mean buying ingredients
locally," Lulay says. "It means using your dollars to support the
right local farmers -- farmers whose operations are eco-friendly and
responsible. When you do that, it's good for everyone involved."